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Saturday, April 11, 2015

Rhode Island Wedding : The Best Weekend of my Life (2014)

This was never meant to be included into any sort of fishing expedition, but me being me you sort of had to see this coming....The plan was simple, I proposed to my wife in August 2013, I basically threw darts at an internet map and decided we'd get married in Rhode Island, one because I've never been to the"New England states" and two because my wife like most women, is totally obsessed with the beach. I talked at great lengths with Pat (PMK) about my desire to catch a lifer Scup while there but despite that had no solid plan of doing so, because obviously that is walking a very dangerous paper thin tight rope.

The food was delicious, my family was unusually cooperative and peaceful, the weather was absurdly fantastic, and somehow it all came together. The entire time my brother Andrew begged to go fishing with Mark and I, seeing as how my brother has never fished saltwater, we rarely do anything together, and he was only going to be there one day I was eager to oblige and then it happened.

My wife looked at me 4 hours before the wedding at most and said "why don't you guys go fishing?"I didn't respond very quickly, convinced this was some sort of cruel trap after all, the wedding was at most a mere 4 hours away, after the initial shock I confirmed that I was in fact not hallucinating and was marrying the coolest person in the world. My "Cousin-In-Law" Bobby (who is coincidentally getting married in 2 weeks himself), Mark, my brother Andrew and I quickly made way to the bait shop and then the fishing location mere minutes from the shore where I would be married.

Once we got to our potential destination I declared my brother with his lack of knowledge of anything fishing or salt would most likely be the first or even only person to land Scup, sure enough he was the first, apparently it pays off to be insane and jump from one rock ledge to one being hit with waves because thats where every Scup was landed on this trip, on and next to the most dangerous access point available.

I sifted through Cunners and Tautogs, two previous catches, which I was happy to see again, especially the "bait stealing" Cunners I've had limited exposure to them despite their overall abundance, for some reason I enjoy "pest" fish more than the average person, they are eager to please with constant action. Shortly thereafter I got a rip from the spot I stole off my brother that looked really good! It put up a great fight and I was esctatic to catch a lifer.....a mere two hours before my wedding was set to start! I had to pose with my brother because we are fire and ice and cannot be placed in a room together without a reaction so this is likely the only family photo you'll be seeing on roughfish! We bumrushed out of there and a pretty epic Russo styled wedding ensued, as the glowing bride held my hands with her perfectly manicured nails, i held hers as well with the fresh stench of filleted Scup still lingering! I didn't expect anything on this trip to be as amazing as it was, but as usual it greatly exceeded my expectations.

I conned my now wife to join me on a fishing trip the following day, before everyone wanted to hit the beach/eat. She happily obliged and quickly caught her lifer Cunner, followed by her lifer Tautog, which would make these two her first Northern Salt species. We then ran out of the blood worms we were currently using for bait and had to resort to using the tiny tiny heads I hacked off to avoid bites. I walked her over to the "death rock" and instructed her to cast the two final tiny blood-nubs into the ocean and announced to Mark we were playing the Scup Lottery. To my astonishment.....we won! She got whacked by a nice Scup and her third lifer of the trip quickly came to fruition.

The following day I grew bolder, I talked to my stepdaughter Madelyn and goaded her into joining me for her first salt fishing trip. I was a little apprehensive about taking a 6 year old with me fishing on giant rocks, but we had Mark along and she listens very well so it went way better than I anticipated, Maddy quickly caught her lifer Cunner and a happy girl she was! Mark caught his photo lifer Tautog and we finally could leave Rhode Island in peace, MISSION IMPOSSIBLE accomplished.

1 comment:

OH my goodness! This island wedding weekend looks so enjoyable. I wish I could have also been there. Well, at some local beachside NYC wedding venues one of my cousins is also getting married and I am sure it would also turn out to be an enjoyable ceremony.